Denver's tax on web and app development draws ire from software execs

It's inefficient, but how else would a local tax scheme be at all enforceable?

This isn't an import tax, this is an anti-evasion provision so some city elsewhere can't unilaterally undermine this city's tax policy.

The USA recognizes state law as a defends against Federal tyranny.

There is a companion tax called 'use tax' which mirrors the components of sales tax but it specific to the place where something is used. The 'problem' that use tax was created to solve was that people would go to the city or state next door and buy things at one tax rate, for use in an area where they were also available but at a (generally) higher tax rate. Use tax laws give cities and states the power to collect the difference in taxes from the user.

It is nearly impossible to enforce, but it is a useful 'kicker' in an audit of an entity that keeps good records.

Try purchasing a car in a state having a lower sales tax rate than your own. You won't escape your local jurisdiction's tax rate.

That said, saying a 3.6% tax makes a software business uneconomical is pretty silly. If that makes the difference between profitability and unprofitability either the business was mostly investing profits internally into growth or was nearly uneconomical anyway. It mostly sounds to me like bitching that the owners may have to settle for Hawaii instead of St Barts this year.